Impact of anthropization on chemical and biological biodiversity in caves. What we're losing?

• Grant number: 23/03842-4
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctoral
• Start date: May 01, 2023
• End date: April 30, 2025
• Field of knowledge: Physical Sciences and Mathematics - Chemistry - Organic Chemistry
• Principal Investigator: Norberto Peporine Lopes
• Grantee: Bianca Del Bianco Sahm
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Ciências Farmacêuticas de Ribeirão Preto (FCFRP). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Ribeirão Preto , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 20/02207-5 - Inventorying secondary metabolism applying metabolomic strategies: contribution to the Brazilian biodiversity valuation, AP.BTA.TEM

Abstract

Biodiversity has been severely impacted by human action, leading to a unprecedented extinction of species. Recent scientific and technological advances make it possible to monitoring this impact and can serve as a tool for creating effective policies for conservation; mainly for oligotrophic microbiomes, such as caves, which are home to unique species of fungi and bacteria and do not respond in a conventional way to anthropization.Tools that measure environmental variables such as metagenomics are essential,allowing the evaluation of the taxonomic community in niches. Allied to this technique, themetabolomics can be applied in a complementary way, thus sweeping the macro universe andmicromolecular. The present work aims to analyze the impacts of anthropization on biodiversitychemistry and biology of caves, developing a model that applies metagenomics, metabolomics and multivariate statistical analyzes to measure biodiversity and the impact of anthropization in caves. In addition to expanding knowledge of the chemical diversity found in cave and with pharmacological and biotechnological potential. This model will allow you to view unprecedented way, how human action is impacting the loss of biodiversity in sensitive environments.